News/Canada

{mosimage}OTTAWA (CCN)—Members of the lay apostolate Madonna House returned the Order of Canada award their foundress received in 1976 to protest the appointment of abortionist Henry Morgentaler.

“The awarding of the Order of Canada to Dr. Morgentaler compels us to protest in the most forceful, peaceful way available to us,” said Mark Schlingerman in a prepared statement to media gathered at Princess Gate, the main entrance to the Governor General’s residence July 8. “Not only do we find his medical practice at the dark side of the medical profession but his inclusion in the awards diminishes them.”

{mosimage}TORONTO - “God don’t make no junk.” You will find these words printed on a wall of pro-life posters in the second-floor office of Birthright co-president Mary Berney.

Birthright, the world’s first international crisis pregnancy service, is one of several organizations which provide alternatives to abortion. Some pro-life advocates say not enough is being publicized about these options for women.

{mosimage}TORONTO - A firestorm of protest continues to sweep across Canada in the wake of a July 1 announcement that abortion doctor Henry Morgentaler would receive the Order of Canada.

Catholic bishops from coast to coast joined numerous pro-life groups in condemning the decision by Governor General Michaëlle Jean to give the country’s highest honour to the man whose name is most widely associated with the fact that Canada, almost alone among civilized nations, has no legal restrictions on abortion.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - Saint Paul University is ending its 73-year history with Novalis by selling Canada's largest Catholic book publisher to a company connected with multinational corporation Bayard Presse.

“We are of course very cautious,” said Catholic Insight editor Fr. Alphonse de Valk, CSB, whose small-circulation magazine already faces more than $20,000 in legal bills. “A judicial review is still possible. We’re not out of the woods yet.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Momentum is building in a nationwide campaign to push Prime Minister Stephen Harper into reversing a decision to give an Order of Canada to abortion doctor Henry Morgentaler.

Since the July 1 announcement by Governor General Michaëlle Jean that Morgentaler would receive Canada's highest distinction for contributions to the nation, Catholics and other pro-life advocates have been uniform in their denunciations.

TORONTO - Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins is leading a battle to prevent abortion doctor Henry Morgentaler from receiving an Order of Canada.

In a July 1 statement, the archbishop called on all Catholics in Toronto — and “all people of good will” — to write to the Governor General, to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and to members of Parliament to ask that the decision be revoked.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Recalling the story of how Jesus’ family was forced into exile in Egypt (Mat. 2:13-23) refugees and the volunteers who support them sang “Jesus was a refugee” at an ecumenical prayer service on the eve of World Refugee Day in Trinity-St. Paul United Church in downtown Toronto.

Refugees from every continent were represented at the June 19 event. Actors recruited from FCJ Hamilton House — a transitional home for women refugees run by the Sisters of the Faithful Companions of Jesus — portrayed life in a refugee camp and related their experience to the Bible in God Sees the Refugee, a play by Sonya VanderVeen Feddema.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - An Alberta Human Rights Commission panel has ordered a former Christian youth pastor to apologize in the pages of the Red Deer Advocate for a strongly worded 2002 letter to the editor he wrote opposing the homosexual activist agenda.

In a May 30 “decision on remedy,” commission panelist Lori Andreachuk also ordered Stephen Boissoin, 41, to request the newspaper publish her judgment against him. She has also imposed a lifetime ban on ever speaking or writing “disparagingly” about homosexuals again: in the media, on the Internet, in public speaking engagements or in e-mails. She has also ordered him to take down any “disparaging” remarks from his web site.

{mosimage}TORONTO - The founding executive director of Project Ploughshares — one of Canada’s leading Christian voices for peace — wants Canadian troops to stay in Afghanistan, for now.

Following 10 days interviewing Afghanis and Canadians in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, Project Ploughshares senior researcher Ernie Regehr concludes Canadian troops are not creating the peace and stability necessary for economic and social development in Kandahar province. However, the soldiers are still necessary to prevent an all-out civil war.